April 28-29, 2010

First thing's first: I love Madrid! There are restaurants and bars on every corner, the people are really friendly and the city is a great mix of old and new. Wednesday morning we started with breakfast in bed and then we went to Plaza Mayor where everything is overpriced due to the high volume of tourists. After a cerveza on the plaza we had lunch at Botin, the oldest restaurant in the world (established 1725). We had suckling pig, the restaurant's specialty. It's definitely an acquired taste, but well worth it. After lunch we took a siesta in Parque Retiro before visiting Museo del Prado - one of the world's great art museums. It houses the largest collection of Spanish art including some interesting pieces by Francisco de Goya.

Late in the evening we had dinner at Turf on Plaza de Santa Ana. After a bottle of wine and some delicios tapas we started bar hopping. We had cider at an Irish pub (go figure) and went dancing at Joy Madrid where I met some students from Alabama. I knew they were American when one guy started a country line dance! Around 4am we decided to call it a night.

Today was an interesting day. Tim bought train tickets online to go to Segovia, but unfortunately he chose the 8:35am train. Needless to say, after the night we had we did not wake up in time. We went ahead to the train station with the hopes of catching the 11:20am train, but the gods were against us. The train actually left at 11:15am and we missed it. I was completely over the situation and wanted to go back to Madrid, but Tim could not be beat. We salvaged the day by getting tickets to El Escorial where we had a late lunch in one of the
sleepiest towns I've ever visited. After lunch we went to the Casita de Principe, a castle set near the mountains. It's been converted into a museum where we saw many more paintings along with artifacts and my favorite part, the tomb chambers. In the chambers were marble tombs where past royals are buried. Freaky!

After the castle we had some cerveza con limon before catching the train back. We planned to have dinner at the Mercado de San Miguel but I realized I was too damn tired and way too hungry to fight the crowd so we decided to go somewhere else. We happened upon a hole-in-the-wall pizzeria where we enjoyed some spaghetti y bolognese and a huevos y jamon pizza. Totally unexpected, but it hit the spot. This is our last night in Madrid we leave early tomorrow for Morocco. I have mixed feelings about the next leg of our trip, but I'm hoping for the best!

April 26-27, 2010

We made it safe and sound! We're both extremely tired from lack of sleep, but we were able to explore the city for a few hours this morning. Our room at the hostel wasn't ready yet, so we grabbed some breakfast at a cafe and then started walking. We came upon the Palacio Real de Madrid and decided to check it out. Let's just say the Spanish LOVE to decorate. I've never seen so much gold plating, crown molding and chandeliers in my life! I was unable to take pictures, but I don't think any pictures could do it justice. After exploring the palace and it's wicked armory we walked to a park for a little siesta then grabbed some ice cream before heading back to the hostel. We're keeping it low-key today. I'll post pictures soon when I get on a real computer. This update is brought to you via my iPod and the hostel's free wi-fi.

After nap-time we hit the streets in search of tapas and beer. We found a lot of great outdoor places and enjoyed olives and patatas fritas with Amstel. We visited one of the Museos de Jamon where we had jamon iberico (the best ham in the world) and sangria. We got a little lost looking for nightlife, but it was worth it because Madrid is a beautiful city. Once our bellies were full and we had a nice buzz we went back to the hotel and happily passed out.